DEAR MY LOVE, LILI

CHAPTER 7

"Has anyone seen Lilianna?!"

That was the sentence Rosie had been repeating each time she walked past other students in Maple Hills and received a no from them. She had come from her room after roaming around the ground floor, thinking that she might find her best friend there. But she was wrong. There was only Susan in the room.

So she walked around the building, looking for Lilianna. She had opened each janitor's room, wondering if the girl was hiding in one of them. The library, storage rooms, canteen, and even each classroom weren't exceptions on her list. She had nowhere else in her mind that the girl might hide in, and she had informed the warden about a missing student before she proceeded to Block B.

It was strange enough that nobody had seen Lilianna in that area as well. Even with the help of two seniors Rosie had recognised from the Teacher's Day celebration, Lilianna was still nowhere to be found.

"I have checked everywhere," Rosie panted, holding onto her knees as she was catching her breath. "Where else she could be?"

"Have you gone into the woods?" Jennie asked, resting her chin on Jillian's shoulder.

"No,"

"Then you haven't checked everywhere."

"But nobody goes there," Rosie argued as she thought no student was allowed to wander past the garden since it was a restricted area despite being in the school compound. "Lili wouldn't simply run into the woods alone."

"Which makes it a perfect hiding place because nobody thinks she would go there," Jillian responded, crossing her arms and staring at her junior. "What did you do to her by the way?"

"What?" Rosie frowned.

"You sounded like this Lili girl had run away from you. What did you do?"

Jennie slapped Jillian's arm, stopping the conversation that she didn't find useful in solving the problem.

"I really think you should check the woods, she must be in there," Jennie suggested. "There is no way she could climb the fence and get out."

Rosie sighed, her mind was considering the words she had heard from her senior. And she was close to getting convinced by them when another hour had passed, no sign of Lilianna yet. She had been walking around the school compound countless times even though Mrs. Meadows told her to wait in her room. But sitting down and waiting would drive her crazy, she wanted to at least keep trying rather than doing nothing.

"The sun will go out soon," Rosie spoke to Mrs. Meadows near the white gazebo, her eyes glancing at the woods behind the small garden at the end of the field. "It's going to get dark-"

"I know." The head warden interrupted Rosie's worries that were out of control by now. "I already called the cops."

"Where are they?"

"They are probably on their way here."

"That was forty minutes ago, Mrs. Meadows." She grumbled. "We've got a missing girl here and the cops are taking so long."

"They have other matters to attend too-"

"So Lilianna isn't that important then?"

"That's not what I meant-"

Rosie ended the woman's speech by walking away and ignoring the next calls she heard.

"Where are you going?!" Mrs. Meadows was alarmed by which way her student was going-it didn't lead to the school building.